The tomatoes are righteously sweet and delicious, and there you are staring at them on your BLT sandwich. As you take that first wonderfully anticipated bite you think to yourself “I should have planted some more tomatoes!”
And thus we have been drawing on the concept of growing a garden and correlating it to managing our very own Internet business. And how along the way you can be enjoying and reaping the rewards of your “gardening” just like you would from the hard work of your own back yard garden. So back we go to our Internet garden.
In previous articles we have discussed our Internet garden with the idea of a back yard garden concept of planting items in rows. With that mindset we have reviewed some of the tasks involved in having a e-commerce and/or an affiliate On-line business. We have our rows of e-commerce and a row of affiliates. In this article we are going to cultivate our blogging business. We are going to see what to do with the row of blogs we have planted.
Just like in the previous articles, you have already planted the blogging seeds and you are writing like you’re a novelist locked in a room cranking out masterpieces. Your web site is up and going, with the seed in the ground, now what?
Honestly one concept that you need to grasp is not taking anything for granted. One of your duties should include reviewing and analyzing what you got going. The look of your site is naturally one item that cannot be overlooked.
This is especially a factor with a blog page. Reading your posts needs to be an experience from the moment the visitor clicks on to your page. The reader may not know it but the visual will enhance or take away from your words of wisdom. Of course that does not mean that you need to have everything under the sun on your page. But you do need enough to keep your page eye pleasing. The word attractive is not just a clever ploy. It means exactly what it is saying. Something attractive attracts.
As always we also will put out the warning of being careful of not overloading your page with too much flash or modern web design technology. Why? Remember not everyone has the computer capabilities you do. In fact most computer users are a couple operating systems behind the hardcore users.
Okay back to our blog. Since blogging is so diverse we are going to break it down into a few parts. Part 1 is going to delve into a fun or fan blog.
The most common examples of this type of blog are those devoted to your favorite band, team, celebrity, hero, author, artist and the like. For example let’s say your site is called www dot popbanb dot com. Yes your site is about your favorite musical artist.
Your page discusses the music and the people behind the music of your favorite band. You have some other options also that you need to consider if you have not already done so. Like what?
For one your hard work will be appreciated by the band and its management. Therefore you need to contact their people. I would say have your people get into touch with their people but chances are you don’t have people. Yeah me neither.
Anyhow most artists, if not all of them, are looking for people to promote them. They in fact create what is called “street teams” and enlist “fan clubs” to promote their merchandise, concerts and recordings. They are usually rewarded with something of value. While it may not be cash it will be some cool stuff you as a fan would love. Think about it, you’re going to do your blog anyway, why not get something for your passionate efforts. What fan would not enjoy some cool perks like tickets or special merchandise for promoting sales for their fave band?
Regardless of how professional or gossipy you make your site you want to attract people to check out your site. So you need to put some effort into your blog. Nobody, not even a bunch of 13 year old fans want to read “oh they’re so great”, or “oh their so cute” every other sentence or every other post. Sure you can be giddy and simple but you also need to give some fresh and substantive information and content. That is if you want to have a successful blog.
Just like your back yard garden, you can plant seeds and then forget about it, but you probably won’t get satisfactory results. If you want a productive garden, then there is work to do. And so it goes with your Internet garden and the success of your blog.
So whether it is an artist, celeb, or any of the other examples we mentioned you need to put some thought and effort into your content and lay out. You should be somewhat aggressive and passive.
What is the latest news surrounding the people your site is about? Are you up to date with their schedule or upcoming events?
Where are they from? What are their interests? How did they get into their field? Why are you such a big fan other than because they’re awesome and/or hot? Why should I, the reader, be interested in them or what might I find interesting about “them”?
Give us some history, some did you know, and some unique aspects. Write with passion and creativity. Write with your heart and your brain. Maybe you can get some thoughts, interviews and contributions from others who share your passion or have knowledge of them.
Logically at this point you must continue to apply the marketing tools you have gained and learned. You need to learn about keywords for your blog for instance. You need to consider directories and other ways to promote your site. Use email, advertisement options, forums, social networks and do the web related work in addition to your blogging.
As you can see there is so much that can be done and needs to be done in regard to your fan blog. So make it happen and make your blog stand out from the other blogs about the same personalities. Remember you had the inspiration and desire to start the blog and you want your voice to be heard, so why not go the distance and get your site seen and enjoyed? Well, why not?
This is a post from the " The Internet Garden " series of articles.
Other posts from this series:
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